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The perfume guide
Basically everything you ever need to know about how to smell good
Understanding all those French words: This is the first trick to choosing a perfume. Fragrances that say Eau Fraiche, Eau de Cologne, and Eau de Toilette have between 5-15 percent perfume extract. Meaning: They will last a maximum of four hours – three or two if you live in hot weather i.e. Dubai weather. So choose perfumes that say Parfum or Eau de Parfum, which have between 15-30 percent of fragrance extract. These are the most expensive. Do invest in perfumes, because yes, you’re worth smelling expensive.
Understanding all this talk about notes: We’ll go over this really quickly. Top notes are made of lighter ingredients but are the first ones you smell once you spray the perfume. Middle notes are made of the perfume’s main theme – so are the most important smells to look out for. Base notes are basically the scents that stay after the rest are gone. The difference between expensive perfumes and cheap perfumes are that cheap perfumes use cheap base notes and so smell bad after a while. Expensive perfumes, well, you get the point.
Understanding which perfume is for you: Forget all the personality traits you hear about. It’s pretty simple. Do you like sweet smells? Go with a perfume with a floral medium note. You like woody scents that smell like wood, literally? Go for musky middle-noted perfumes. You like smelling fresh like you just go out of the shower? Go for middle-notes of citrus. But here is the trick to really picking your perfume – spray it on your hand from a shop at the mall and see if the smell bothers you, attracts you, or makes no difference to you. Maybe perfumes never made a difference to you because you never found the right one for you, in which case, you go out there and you find your perfume.
Understanding how to use perfumes: Never, ever, ever use two perfumes at the same time unless it has been successfully tried and tested. Layering does not work with most perfumes and only specific perfumes can be mixed together. Also – do buy a moisturiser, cologne, and oil belonging to your perfume line, otherwise the perfume’s smell will get lost in a layering of smells, which we already said you wouldn’t do, remember? And one more thing, do spray your perfume right after you get out of the shower, before getting dressed and after you apply moisturiser. This will make it last longer.
Finally, understanding where to use your perfume: Where you spray your perfume on your body makes a difference as to how long it will last. Places that will maintain the smell for a long time are as follows (in order of importance): back of the neck, behind the ears, shoulders, inside of the wrists, inside of the elbows, back of the knees, and front and upper midriff. And no, you don’t have to spray it on all of those places, but if you can, you really should – in the name of smelling good.
